Laudate Cedricus. A cuspide Pelicanus.1
To Cedric of Thanet, knight, laurel, and worthy subject, do We send Our greetings and recognition. Long and well have you served our lands, guarding the northern marches at Our ward’s end with sword, and spear, and ax, and blade. Teaching all comers, you have encouraged Our ranks and protected Our borders with your great service to those of great and humble esteem alike. In honor of your reliability and wise governance, We render to you the gratitude deserved for your care of Our loyal subjects, and for the very great fidelity which you have shown to the East, by ordaining you a companion of the Order of the Pelican with the advice and consent of your fellow companions. By this sign, all will know Our respect for your devotion, and should you be called beyond Our borders, all willing, you shall return to us. Thus, three days past Martinmas, in the fifty-fifth year of the Society, with Our intention of worthily rewarding your services now complete, We, Magnus Tindal and Alberic von Rostock, Royal Majesties of the East, ask you to continue the same.
Labor omnia improba vincit.2
+ Ego Tindal rex Orientis consensi et subscripsi
+ Ego Alberic rex Orientis consensi et subscripsi
1. Pay tribute to Cedric. From the Spear a pelican.
2. Hard work conquers everything.
This text inspired by
- Text from a letter from Alexander IV to Margeurite of Provence, January 23, 1258
- Public letter from Conrad II to the Abbot of Corvey on the Germans’ Crusade, original in Latin (https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/1148conrad2.asp)
- Numerous charter deeds from the Anglo Saxon Charters of St. Augustines Abbey Canterbury and Minster-in-Thanet